Binding Web -5 Accuracy explained!

[Infinitron]

In a conversation with Josh on Something Awful: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3706905&pagenumber=666#post452879929

 

It's giving me the ****s that Binding Web still has -15 accuracy for no reason. I'd still never use it but how has no-one on the official boards reported something so obvious?

 

The reason it has low accuracy is because the affliction it causes makes subsequent pulses of the spell much more likely to succeed. If an attack of Binding Web Hits, the next attack will be against someone who has -2 to Dex and -20 to Reflex, so effectively -24 Reflexes, putting the net accuracy at +9. We could adjust it back up a bit, or we could have Binding Web target Fortitude instead of Reflex. That might seem a little strange, but it would solve that problem and it's not that odd considering one way out of A/D&D Web is just using Strength.

 

e: Binding Web is actually only -5 Accuracy unless I'm missing something. Either way, I'll just make all of the webs have standard Accuracy and switch them over to Fortitude.

 

Normal spells cast at +10, so -5 is -15 total.

 

Switching them to fortitude will kill Tanglefoot(and Binding Web if anyone ever actually cast it) on PotD. It's not like hobbled is a powerful effect.

 

It's not particularly powerful on its own, but it does make targets vulnerable to subsequent Reflex-based attacks and valid targets for Sneak Attack.

 

The reason why we initially reduced the accuracy wasn't because of player use, but because spiders who cast webs were shutting down the party for entire fights really easily. Both internal testers and beta testers complained about it, so we lowered the accuracy for all web attacks.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Infinitron

[Infinitron]

The spider versions actually bind though. The player spells are just hobbled. If I'm using up a whole per rest spell just to give an accuracy boost to certain other spells I want it to definitely work.

 

Switching Tanglefoot and the already terrible Binding Web to fortitude is an enormous nerf.

That's a fair point. The web and tangle effects are some of our oldest abilities. I'll take a look at them and see if there's a better way to handle them as a whole.

Looking back through the various web attack prefabs, some inflict Stuck and some inflict Hobbled. One of the disadvantages to how the data was structured on PoE is that all spell/attack variants have their own prefabs, so it's easy to miss individual instances when making changes.

 

To distinguish Tanglefoot and Binding Web, I think leaving Tanglefoot as Hobbled/Reflex and switching Binding Web to Stuck/Fortitude, with both at standard spell accuracy (+10), would be better. Hobbled is not as powerful an effect, but if you hit with it against Reflex, you're more likely to keep the target Hobbled (Tanglefoot already had standard accuracy, and that doesn't seem to be a big issue). Stuck is much more powerful if melee opponents are involved, but attacking Fortitude means that hitting doesn't make subsequent attacks any more likely to keep them Stuck.

Nice, AD&D-style Webs.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Infinitron

[Kilburn]

The game is chock full of borderline useless and under performing spells. With a few borderline broken ones mixed in here and there.

 

Im almost tempted to get in game, start testing and do a full write up of all the ones that suck.

 

I guess they tried to copy baldurs gate here? Not a good thing to copy in this case.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Kilburn

[Sensuki]

Beta testers complained about spiders unlimited casts of their binding web. Not about the accuracy IIRC.

[Zenbane]

The game is chock full of borderline useless and under performing spells. With a few borderline broken ones mixed in here and there.

 

Im almost tempted to get in game, start testing and do a full write up of all the ones that suck.

 

I guess they tried to copy baldurs gate here? Not a good thing to copy in this case.

 

I'd like to see that writeup, dont tease. Also, I thought that the problem with PoE is that they DID NOT copy BG?? I'm so confused...

 

Edited November 19, 2015 by Zenbane